Clarence Thomas Says The KKK Makes Gun Rights Necessary

Clarence Thomas gave his opinion on gun rights before the Supreme Court’s decision to extend gun rights and stop Chicago’s hand gun ban. He claims that Black people have had their gun rights infringed on and could not defend themselves against groups like the Klu Klux Klan.

Referring to the disarming of blacks during the post-Reconstruction era, Thomas wrote: “It was the ‘duty’ of white citizen ‘patrols to search negro houses and other suspected places for firearms.’ If they found any firearms, the patrols were to take the offending slave or free black ‘to the nearest justice of the peace’ whereupon he would be ‘severely punished.’ ” Never again, Thomas says.

In a scorcher of an opinion that reads like a mix of black history lesson and Black Panther Party manifesto, he goes on to say, “Militias such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights of the White Camellia, the White Brotherhood, the Pale Faces and the ’76 Association spread terror among blacks. . . . The use of firearms for self-defense was often the only way black citizens could protect themselves from mob violence.”